Something
by 23 Enigma
Summary: No Harry. No Hermione and Ron. Dumbledore's dead. And worst of all, Snape and the Carrows are now the ones in charge of Hogwarts. But enough is enough, and Neville's decided it's about time he does something and faces his worst fears.


SOMETHING

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Disclaimer: I do not own "Harry Potter", "The Beatles", or anything else in this story either outright mentioned or parodied. I only say I wrote the story; that's it.

Story: takes place during "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows"

Summary: No Harry. No Hermione and Ron. Dumbledore's dead. And worst of all, Snape and the Carrows are now the ones in charge of Hogwarts. But enough is enough, and Neville's decided it's about time he does something and faces his worst fears.

Pairings: slight Neville + Luna

Rating: PG-13 / T to be safe

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"Neville?" Luna called out to him as she slowly walked into the Room of Requirement. That had become their new base of operations, now that Harry was gone and Snape was in charge. But the room was unusually dark, indicating to her that Neville had indeed changed the room's layout since last they had been there. Luna then saw a body lying in the center of the room, barely moving. "Neville? Are you alright?"

He rolled over so that he was facing toward the ceiling. He groaned in pain, signifying that he was, in fact, alive. "What? Luna?"

She walked over and crouched over him "You don't look so good."

Neville groaned. "I've been better."

"I was hoping Seamus was just joking about what you were up to."

He coughed in response. "Seamus told you I was here, did he?"

Luna nodded and helped him up. "He just told Ginny and me while we were painting Dumbledore's Army slogans throughout the school."

"Well… it was nice of you to check up on me, but I'm fine. I've got it under control."

"Naturally," she answered in a sing-song voice. Luna then noticed an old wooden chest lying in front of them. "Oh, is that it? Seamus said he helped you sneak it out of the dungeons."

Neville turned away, not wanting to look her in the face at this moment. "Yeah. The Carrows have been using it to torture rebellious first-years since they don't know how to fight back against it. So it's gotten really strong feeding off of their fears," Neville answered. "It's a tough one. Much stronger than the one Professor Lupin used in my third year."

"Are you having trouble finishing it off?" she asked. "Would you like my help?"

"No," Neville answered. "I'm… I'm using to it to train actually. When I'm done, then I'll destroy it."

Luna looked confused. "Why are you doing that?" Neville didn't respond, so Luna continued to talk. "There are other ways to train. You could spar with me. Just like old times with the DA."

He looked down at his feet. "No… It's got to be like this. Just me."

"I don't like seeing you hurt yourself like this, Neville. Look at you."

"I know. And I'm sorry, but since Harry's not here, we've all got to step up. So this is what I'm doing. I've got to be stronger."

She looked at his injuries and frowned. She touched his bloody lip. "How many times have you fought it already?"

"Four," Neville answered as he turned away. "I came real close to beating it last time."

"Neville…" she started.

"Look, I need to do this, Luna."

"Why?" she asked as she tried to look at his eyes.

"Because… because we all know how this is going to end. It's going to be us versus them sooner or later. So when Harry comes back, and it's time to fight, I want to be ready."

Luna sighed. "I suppose nothing I say will change your mind."

"No," he answered as he picked up his wand.

Luna halfheartedly smiled at him. "You're stubborn… You know that?" She shook her head in disapproval, but stepped back to let him continue. "Okay."

He wasn't expecting her to say that. "Okay?"

She nodded. "But I'm staying. I don't want things to get out of control. You already look like you lost a wrestling match to a heliopath."

"Thanks," he said as he nodded in approval.

Luna pulled out her wand. "Whenever you're ready then, Neville."

He pointed his wand forward and took a stance. "I'm ready."

She pointed her wand at the chest. "_Alohamora_!" The lock on the chest clicked and fell off.

The lid of the chest swiftly swung backwards. A hand from inside the chest grabbed the rim, and then a second hand appeared, holding a wand. The figure rose and then neatly stepped out of the chest. His eyes pierced forward, staring straight at Neville. "Mr. Longbottom…" the Boggart in the shape of Severus Snape muttered.

Neville yelled in anticipation. "_Impedimenta_!" A flash of green light shot out of Neville's wand. Boggart-Snape neatly ducked out of the way and pointed his own wand at Neville.

"Is that the best you can do, worthless boy?" Boggart-Snape mocked. "_Stupefy_!" His wand sparkled red as the spell shot at Neville's chest.

"_Protego_!" The spell bounced off the magical shield and failed to hit Neville. "_Petrificus Totalus_!"

"_Wingardium Leviosa_!" Boggart-Snape shouted in response. The nearby wooden chest floated in midair and blocked Neville's curse. "Pathetic. Truly pathetic, Longbottom. Just like your grades." He faced Neville. "_Relashio_!"

This jinx hit Neville in the stomach and sent him flying backwards. He landed on his back and groaned in pain.

"Neville!" Luna shouted in concern.

"I'm fine!" he yelled back at her immediately as he struggled to get to his feet. "Let me keep going!" He pointed his wand at Boggart-Snape. "_Incendio_!"

The wooden chest exploded in flames, knocking Snape over. Neville acted quickly before Boggart-Snape could counterattack. "I learned this trick from Hermione! _Avis_!" A flock of birds erupted out of the tip of Neville's wand. "_Oppugno_!" he shouted and the birds flew at Boggart-Snape.

Their sharp beaks and talons raked at Boggart-Snape's arms as he tried to cover his face. "Foolish boy…" he muttered in anger as he got back up to his feet. Boggart-Snape aimed at the charred remains of the chest. "_Waddiwasi_!" Suddenly, the still-smoking shards of wood shot off of the ground. Each piece of wood struck the birds like bullets, causing them to vanish in a poof of little feathers as soon as they were hit.

"I can summon deadly creatures, too, Longbottom!" Boggart-Snape raised his wand toward his shoulder and then quickly snapped his arm at Neville. "_Serpensortia_!" A large, black cobra appeared out of the end of Boggart-Snape's wand. It hissed as it flicked its tongue. It then spread its hood wide and lunged at Neville, aiming to bite his leg.

Neville reacted out of instinct. "_Diffindo_!" he said as he swung his wand like a sword. The charm sliced through the cobra's neck and it vanished in an instant. "Snakes… Why did it have to be snakes?"

Boggart-Snape responded quickly. "_Levicorpus_!" Neville's body was soon flung into the air and he was left dangling upside down. He laughed at Neville. "What will you do without Harry Potter here to protect you? Without Hermione Granger to whisper instructions into your ears? Without Ronald Weasley to encourage your pathetic attempts at magic?" he mocked.

Neville pointed his wand at his own feet. "_Liberacorpus_!" He then dropped to the ground. Luna covered her eyes for a split-second as she watched him land painfully on his shoulder.

Boggart-Snape glared at Neville. "Pathetic. Get it through your thick skull, Longbottom. You cannot defeat me. Why, if Harry Potter is the Boy Who Lived, then you clearly must be the Boy Who Failed."

Luna worriedly watched Neville and pointed her wand at Snape, ready to act at a moment's notice. "Neville!" she called out to him, sounding even more worried than before.

"Not yet!" Neville shouted back at her as he slammed his hand against the floor in frustration. "I can still beat him!"

Boggart-Snape glanced at Luna quickly before facing Neville again. "Oh? Am I too much to handle alone? Need to rely on Loony Lovegood to help you out?"

"Forget about her! I'm your opponent!" Neville yelled.

Boggart-Snape scoffed. "Hardly. You're a failure, Longbottom. Just like your parents."

"Shut up!" Neville shouted.

"Don't like me insulting your good-for-nothing parents? Well, if their dueling skills weren't such garbage, maybe I'd have some more respect for them."

Without thinking, Neville got to his feet and angrily ran at Boggart-Snape. "Shut up! Shut up!"

Boggart-Snape pointed his wand at Neville. "_Locomotor Mortis_!" Neville's legs suddenly snapped together and he fell forwards. "No more silly games, Longbottom. It's time you follow in your worthless parents' footsteps and feel the sting of the Cruciatus Curse…"

"_Expelliarmus_!" Luna shouted. A jet of red sparks shot out of Luna's wand and hit Boggart-Snape's hand, causing him to drop his wand.

Neville glanced over at her. "Luna…" Neville half-heartedly pleaded.

"No more, Neville," she said as she walked over to Neville. "This has gone on long enough." She stepped in front of the Boggart. He eyed her and then started to change. In seconds, instead of Snape, the Boggart standing in front of them had become a copy of Luna herself. But this other Luna looked wrong. She was gaunt and her hair was disheveled. She had dark bags under her eyes and looked like she was about to cry. This other Luna looked up. "So… alone…" she whispered as she trembled. "No… mother… No… friends… Forever… alone…"

"I'm not alone," Luna said as she pointed her wand at the Boggart. "_Riddikulus_!" Her wand made a whip-like crack sound, and the other Luna turned into a stack of magazines. _The Quibbler_, of course. And each copy of the magazine had a picture of Luna on the cover, with the words "Teen Witch Discovers Nargles! World Rejoices!" written across the page.

"Much better," she said. "Please, Neville, just finish it off now. I can't watch any more of this."

He sighed and got to his feet. Neville then walked in front of her, so he was now staring at the Boggart. It glanced at him and then morphed back into Snape. But before it could do anything else, Neville lazily raised his wand at the creature. "_Riddikulus_!"

Boggart-Snape was then immediately wearing Neville's grandmother's clothes, looking absolutely comical. Neville couldn't help but laugh at seeing Snape look like that, and the Boggart screamed in pain as it disappeared into nothingness.

Neville dropped his wand and collapsed to his knees. He let out a sigh. "Damn…"

Luna slowly walked over to him. "Neville?" she asked.

"I could have had him…" he said, mostly to himself. "One more time and I would have been able to defeat him…"

She sat down next to him and patted him on the shoulder. "I know. But as I already told you. I don't like seeing you get hurt."

Neville absent-mindedly scratched his neck. "I shouldn't have gotten so mad over what it said… That was stupid…"

"It insulted your parents," she replied. "It's only natural that you'd get angry."

"I guess…" Neville wiped some blood off of his mouth with the back of his hand and then sighed in frustration. "What's the point of trying to get stronger if I just keep failing? If I can't defeat Boggart-Snape, how am I ever going to defeat real Snape?" he asked. "I really am a nothing…" he said.

She grabbed him and looked him straight in the eyes. "Don't you dare say that, Neville Longbottom."

He was a bit shocked by her sudden forwardness. "Luna?"

"Neville," she asked, "do you remember when we first met?"

He nodded, unsure why she was suddenly asking this. "Uh, yeah. Meeting you was pretty memorable. We were on the Hogwarts Express. My fifth year. Your fourth. Ginny introduced Harry and me to you. I think you were reading _The Quibbler_, upside-down of course, and you had your wand tucked behind your ear."

"Good. But do you remember what we first said to each other?"

Neville shook his head. "Can't say that I do."

"After I said I recognized Harry, I said that I didn't know who you were," she stated. "And do you know what happened next? You introduced yourself as 'nobody'. You did. You called yourself a nobody."

Neville nodded, still a bit confused. "Okay, so what? What's that got to do with anything?"

"A nobody wouldn't face Bellatrix Lestrange with his head held high. A nobody wouldn't stand their ground against a horde of Death Eaters," she said. "A nobody wouldn't be the leader of the DA."

"Hang on. Bellatrix defeated me. I was no match for her. And our stand against the Death Eaters was a failure. Dumbledore was still killed," Neville responded. "And I'm not really the leader of the DA. You and Ginny are also co-leaders, and we're only leaders because Harry's not here."

"Don't focus on that, Neville. That's not what's important," she stated. "The heart of the matter is that you're not a nobody. You're a good, brave man. We all know it. Why don't you?"

Neville opened his mouth to respond, but Luna held her finger up to his mouth to silence him.

Luna smiled at him. "You keep saying you're nothing. But you're not. You're something."

He raised an eyebrow in confusion. "But what does that mean?"

"Isn't it obvious? Something isn't nothing," she said simply.

Neville wanted to respond, but wasn't sure of what to say. She turned to him and continued to speak. "Can I tell you something, Neville?" He nodded.

"My mother died when I was young. She was experimenting with some spells, and… things didn't go the way she wanted. Her death was terrible, and I miss her every day. But what was even worse was what people would say about her afterwards. I got teased a lot for having a 'stupid mother who went and got herself killed with her own stupid spells'. People called her a fool. Hearing people say mean stuff like that… it was the worst. It made me really mad, and for a long time all I did was hate everything and everyone…"

"That's awful…" he said.

Luna pulled her legs up to her chest and rested her chin on her knees. "Not a lot of people know what it feels like, to be so angry at the world that it hurts. That you feel so much hatred deep in your bones. But you can't go on living like that, you can't. It's not good when negative emotions control your life. So I learned that you have to hide the anger, like putting on a mask. Just force yourself to smile and pretend you're okay. Instead of crying and yelling, you're researching Nargles and Crumple-Horned Snorkacks, just like what she used to do. It reminds you of them. It keeps them alive because they're always in your thoughts and actions. And even though at first you're just going through the motions of being normal again, it helps. Because when you pretend to be happy, it's easier to actually start enjoying life again. To have fun doing silly things. To make friends. And then my smiles really did become genuine. Because I found people who really cared for me and who I really cared for in return. Ginny. Harry. Ron. Hermione. And you. We're friends."

Neville nodded, understanding perfectly. "Yeah, friends."

"So you see, Neville, we're not so different. You're not as alone as you think you are."

"Yeah, I guess not…" Neville said as he stood up. He then looked her in the eyes. "I don't remember you telling me about your mother before."

She faced him. "That's because… I never have. Actually… I've never told that to anyone."

He wasn't really sure what made him do it, but he pulled her closer to him and hugger her tightly. "Thanks, Luna," he said as they stood up.

"You're very welcome, Neville," she said happily. She then immediately started hopping on one foot and waving her arms around her head.

"Uh… what are you doing?" he asked her.

After a couple more seconds, she stopped and then turned to him. "You have to do this right after a hug or else you're prone to Blibbering Humdinger bites. Didn't you know?"

Neville couldn't help but smile. She was strange, he thought to himself, but she was a good person. She really was. "Never knew that. You're really smart, you know that?"

"Wit beyond measure is man's greatest treasure," she joked.

Neville chuckled. He then turned away from her, spat out some blood, and then cracked his neck. "Wow. I am in a lot of pain. Boggart-Snape really packed a punch."

"No one to blame but yourself," Luna said as she pointed at his injuries.

"Yeah, no argument there…" Neville replied.

"Well, I can't let you be the only one with reckless and dumb ideas," Luna said with a smile. "So how about we go act on one of mine?"

"What happened to that whole 'wit beyond measure' thing?"

She laughed. "Do you happen to have anything that can cause a distraction or break into rooms?"

"Uh… yes, actually. My Great-Uncle Algie gave me a whole bag of Snapdragon seeds two birthdays ago. They explode on contact. Really wicked, actually. I think I should still have enough for something. Why? What exactly are you planning?"

"See, I've been thinking about this for a little while. Remember on the train to Hogwarts at the beginning of the school year Ginny mentioned how Rufus Scrimgeour talked to Harry about Dumbledore's will?"

"I guess, yeah…"

"Well, we have a golden opportunity to help Harry that is just too good to pass up. So… I say we go grab Ginny and break into Snape's office."

His jaw dropped. "What? Break into Snape's office? Why would we do that? Unless…" Neville shook his head, not sure if he was more worried or excited. "Luna… please don't tell me this is what I think it is…"

Luna smiled dreamily. "Neville, want to steal back the Sword of Gryffindor?"


End file.
